Taking care of patients is our top priority in the UTMB Department of Internal Medicine. Our department offers excellent clinical care in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. Our faculty, fellows, and residents staff all inpatient medicine and subspecialty services at John Sealy hospital as well as the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Hospital located adjacent to the UTMB main campus. We strive to provide top notch outpatient care in primary care and all medical specialties. With clinics located on Galveston island as well as on the mainland we are here to meet all of your patient care needs. The links to the left of this page include information about our various clinics, driving directions, and introduces you faculty in every division. We look forward to taking care of you and your family in the future.

Welcome to the Department of Internal Medicine Research

Kristin Sokol MD (Assistant Professor, Division of Allergy) recently presented her work at a high profile, invited symposium for promising young academic physician-scientists.

The project, entitled "Choosing Wisely: Adherence by Physicians to Recommended Use of Spirometry in the Diagnosis and Management of Adult Asthma", was awarded a tie for first place in the clinical research section of the Tenth Annual Respiratory Disease Young Investigator's Forum in Washington DC.

The Department of Internal Medicine is actively involved in a variety of research efforts, from human clinical trials using innovative medications, to basic bench research directed towards discovering fundamental mechanisms of chronic disease. An important effort of Internal Medicine faculty is translational research, the application of cutting-edge science to clinical problems and their solutions (link to ITS website here).

In FY 2010, we had 94 awards, totaling about $25 million, about half of which was federal support. We increased research awards, and research expenditures, from FY 2009.

The Department supports a MultiDisciplinary Clinical Trials Office [CTO] jointly with the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences [OVS], directed by Dr Calhoun, and Managed by Lisa Nemeth Sweeny RN. It is staffed with clinical research nurses and clinical coordinators, has equipment and furnishings for patient interventions common in clinical trials, and occupies space on the third floor of the OVS building at 700 University Avenue. Stop by to see our facilties!

An important research initiative in our Department is the development of Interest Clusters. Our purpose for the Interest Clusters is to bring together clinicians, clinical scientists, and basic scientists who share interests in a disease or process, in order to facilitate new research opportunities. We currently have four such clusters:

Contact the Cluster Leader, or Dr Calhoun, if you would like more information, or to become involved.
Our web page is under active development. Stop by frequently to see the latest updates.

The Department of Internal Medicine is committed to delivering state of the art, quality healthcare as well as the utmost in customer service. Towards this end, our faculty and staff are active in practicing and teaching systematic quality improvement that is based on data and results driven. This quest for quality is championed by Dr. Lindsay Sonstein who serves as the Director of Quality Management for the Department of Internal Medicine. A formal quality improvement education curriculum for residents and faculty has been implemented and quality improvement projects are currently ongoing in both the ambulatory and inpatient arenas. Use the menu links on the left for useful information.

The Department of Internal Medicine is committed to the principles of excellence, integrity, fairness and accountability. We are achieving our missions of clinical care, education and research by focusing on three key strategic directions for the department – advancing quality improvement, promoting global health initiatives and expanding chronic disease research.